Quarter Past The Elite Four
by apelilly
Summary: And so it was that Cynthia found her team – two floors down and three halls over from where she had started – congregating by one of the large, arched windows in hushed voices.


Don't own Pokemon. This is all for you, Kahty. :)

Haha what did I just write?

**Quarter Past (The Elite) Four**

Cynthia made her way down the hall, a small frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. She had just finished checking each of the rooms that the Elite Four members of the Pokemon League had been assigned to battle in, only to find them all peculiarly empty. And though it wasn't unusual for a member or two to take a break now and then while they awaited potential trainers the woman did find it quite odd that _all _of their rooms would be empty at once.

Clearly, this needed to be investigated.

And so it was that Cynthia found her team – two floors down and three halls over from where she had started – congregating by one of the large, arched windows in hushed voices.

She walked over to the group as quietly as her heels would allow on the hard floor and when she was right behind their turned backs, Cynthia cleared her throat and inquired, "What are you doing?"

The others rounded at her voice quickly, looking both surprised and relieved at the same time.

"Cynthia!" Aaron exclaimed, "We thought—"

"You were—" Bertha added.

"Someone else." Lucian finished, giving her a smile that would have been charming if it didn't look so nervous.

It was then that she realized they were one person short of the customary four she was used to.

"Where's Flint? And why are you all standing here?" She asked.

The three trainers glanced at each other with the slightest looks of unease, silently expressing that none of them wanted to explain to their Champion what they were up to and possibly get into trouble for it. Cynthia would have clucked her tongue in amusement if it weren't for the fact that she sometimes liked to see her Elite Four members afraid of her. She kept her face serious. "Well?"

Lucian and Bertha simultaneously turned their gazes to Aaron who, being the youngest member, was sadly the easiest to get saddled with situations such as these whether he liked it or not. The boy attempted to battle their looks with one of his own but did not last long and ended up sighing in defeat. He faced his Champion, plastering on a shaky grin that Cynthia found even more amusing than Lucian's smile and tried his hand at explaining.

"So it's like this," he began, rubbing the back of his neck as though it would lessen the tension he was feeling, "Flint has been, ah, lamenting over that trainer in Sunyshore City again. You know the one? Blond guy, Gym Leader, uses electric Pokemon. Anyway…it's been getting annoying to listen to so, uh, we've been planning."

"Planning?" The Champion's eyebrows went up, one disappearing behind her curtain of hair.

"Yeah." Aaron gulped. "Planning."

Bertha put a wrinkled hand on the boy's shoulder, "To get them together so that their lives will be enriched and we no longer have to see our Flint pining away."

Lucian nodded, "Obviously."

"Obviously." Cynthia repeated.

Trust her team to be up to antics that some would call romantic and that she found silly. However, as long as it didn't interfere with their actual jobs then who was she to stop them? And if it blew up in their faces, well, that would be good for a laugh too. But a small part of her maybe _did _want whatever scheme they were involved in to work if only to get Flint to stop worrying about Sunyshore's Gym Leader and get back to business.

Yes, that was it exactly. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Alright," She said, mouth quirking into a small smile, "I'll bite. What kind of 'plan' have you three been hatching?"

Lucian's smile lost its nervous look and melted into one of pride. "I came up with this particular idea myself. We have sent a letter to both Flint and his friend that indicates they are to meet outside of our building today at precisely four o'clock. Both have been signed to make them think that the other sent it. We were just waiting for them to arrive when you happened upon us."

Bertha laughed, "Right on time! And with any luck they'll talk about how they are feeling and everything else will just fall into place."

The blonde woman took a moment to let their words sink in, her mouth twisting from a smile to an odd curling of her lips in the direction of her left cheek. Surely that small part of her couldn't have been crushed so soon.

"_That _is your plan? However did you come up with such a thing?"

Lucian adjusted his glasses with one finger, "Well, you see, I read it in a book once and it—"

"I don't think I should let you read any more books in between battles, Lucian."

At the man's affronted look, Cynthia gave a wry smirk and addressed all three at once, "Do you really think this is going to work?"

"Does a Beautifly have a catch rate of five point nine percent?" Aaron asked.

He received blank looks in reply.

"It does."

"Right." Cynthia said. "Do let me know how this turns out."

She was about to take her leave when Bertha waved her hand excitedly and clutched at her brown scarf, "Wait, wait, wait! Look! Flint's here!"

All three pressed close to the glass in order to get a good look and Cynthia debated for about two seconds on whether she wanted to take part in any of this before shrugging and squishing her way in between Aaron and Bertha.

Down below she spotted her third strongest Elite Four member. Flint had both hands stuffed in his pockets as per usual; his lanky frame slouched and seemingly relaxed. If it weren't for the anxious look adorning his face he would have given the impression that nothing was wrong and that he was going through just another day. But meeting with Sunyshore's number one trainer 'at the request of his letter' must have left Flint feeling rather worried. It was no secret that he and Volkner were good friends and had been since childhood as Flint would gladly tell anyone who would listen, but lately things had been tense and uneasy between them and not even Cynthia was safe from hearing about it on a regular basis.

One of Flint's hands materialized from his pocket and the redhead checked his watch, frowning. Cynthia glanced down at her own watch; it read three fifty-nine. The Elite Four and Champion ended up waiting out the last minute and then another five which turned into another ten. At four fifteen they were starting to despair that Volkner wouldn't come and, with the way Flint was looking, he despaired as well.

Lucian put a hand to his chin, seeming perplexed, "I don't understand. It worked so well in the book I was sure it would be the same with them."

"Maybe he saw through our letter and knew it wasn't Flint who wrote it." Aaron scratched his head, the movement messing with his green hair when he removed his hand in a swift motion.

Bertha sucked at her teeth in annoyance, "Flint did say he was quite smart, if a bit on the grumpy side."

Cynthia shook her head as she watched Flint check the time again. She sighed, "He's clearly not coming. That's too bad, gentlemen and lady, but in all honesty this is your first 'plan' and you can't expect it to work out the way you want it to. Now, I think it's time you got back to work and when Flint comes in you had better give him some space."

The Champion turned on her heel, heading back in the direction she had first appeared. She heard the others moving from behind, sounding sullen, but following her directions without question.

Four thirty. Flint had waited a whole half hour for his best friend to show his face only to be stood up. Somehow he should have expected it, since Volkner could be a total cow when he wanted to, but still it would have been nice to see the guy. Shuffling his feet and rolling his shoulders, Flint let out an obnoxious breath before deciding it wasn't worth it and that he could give Volkner a call later and yell at him.

Preparing to begin an afternoon of sulking, the redhead did a double take when a familiar Pokemon bounded over and jumped into his arms.

"Well hey there, buddy." Flint, surprised, scratched Raichu behind the ears earning a pleased sound, "Long time no see. Infernape sure has missed you."

"I'm sure the feeling is mutual." Came the faintly nasal tone of Sunyshore's Gym Leader.

At the sight of his friend, Flint broke into a huge grin that lit up his whole face and he resisted the urge to both give Volkner a hug and punch him hard in the arm for making him wait. He let Raichu down then reached for his Infernape's poke-ball, opting to let the two go play while he and Volkner caught up.

"I didn't think you were gonna show." Flint confessed.

The blond shrugged one shoulder, looking away, "Well your letter seemed urgent so…"

"Yeah yours did too, so I—wait."

"Huh?"

Both Flint and Volkner stared at one another in confusion, the sounds of their Pokemon filling up the silence.

"_What letter?_"


End file.
